For Immediate Release For More Information:
June 18, 2024
Movers for America, a coalition of some 1,000 professional movers and independent owner-operators, today issued a statement praising Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), Chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, ranking member Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), and Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) for including a provision in the annual defense policy bill requiring a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of a controversial plan by U.S Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) to overhaul the nation’s system of military moves. The provision passed the subcommittee with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The bill would direct the GAO to examine the programs and procedures associated with TRANSCOM’s Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), which would outsource responsibility for 300,000-plus military moves a year to a single, untested entity. Congress would direct the GAO to determine:
- The extent to which the Defense Department is monitoring and utilizing feedback from across the military services regarding the new processes and systems established by the GHC;
- The GHC’s effects on personnel rotation planning and readiness requirements; and
- The extent to which the new GHC technology is functional, user-friendly for service members, civilians and their families, and integrated among the Defense Department, individual services, military families, and the prime and subcontractors.
In response, Movers for America issued this statement:
“On behalf of many of the companies and independent haulers who currently move our military families, we thank the Congressional leaders who are asking important questions and pushing for a credible, independent evaluation of this untested plan – before military families suffer the significant consequences of a failure. For months, the moving industry has been raising serious concerns about the program’s viability as it’s currently designed, its funding levels, and the impacts of replacing a competitive system with a monopoly. In the interest of our service families and of American competitiveness, we urge Congress to push pause on GHC implementation until all these questions are satisfactorily answered, subject to a hard look by the GAO.”
